NPT REVIEW CONFERENCE ASSESSES WORK STATUS, PROGRESS MADE IN CURRENT SESSION

NPT REVIEW CONFERENCE ASSESSES WORK STATUS, PROGRESS MADE IN CURRENT SESSION

10 May 2000

Press ReleaseDC/2707

NPT REVIEW CONFERENCE ASSESSES WORK STATUS, PROGRESS MADE IN CURRENT SESSION

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In a short meeting this morning, the 2000 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) evaluated the current status of work and progress made since the beginning of its session on 24 April.

Conference President Abdallah Baali (Algeria) said that in an informal plenary meeting last Friday, many interesting ideas had been generated in a serious in-depth discussion on the strengthened review process for the Treaty. There was significant agreement that the strengthened review process had fallen short of the international community's expectations and that it needed to be improved. The delegates had also agreed that such improvement should be achieved without reopening Decision 1 of the 1995 Review and Extension Conference, and that it should rather be built upon it.

[Decision 1 of the 1995 Review Conference concerns strengthening of the review process for the Treaty. It states that the Review Conference should continue to be convened every five years. It also regulates the work of the Preparatory Committee and the structure of the main bodies of the Conference. By the terms of the decision, the Review Conference should look forward, as well as back, evaluating the progress made and addressing the measures that might be undertaken to strengthen the implementation of the Treaty and to achieve its universality.]

Continuing, the President informed the delegates that he had prepared a paper containing common elements of the discussion. He had also held numerous consultations on the paper and was encouraged by the support he had received. The paper would be presented for consideration in the plenary in the near future.

The Conference is scheduled to receive the reports of its Main Committees at 3 p.m. on Friday, 12 May.

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